The Dangote Fertiliser Limited has announced the formal commencement of production of urea in commercial quantity and the plan to hit the Nigerian market on Monday.
The president of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, who disclosed this to a delegation of top bankers, including the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, said the plant had a capacity to churn out three million metric tonnes per annum of urea.
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The CBN governor was at the plant in company of senior bankers, who consisted of chief executive officers of First Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, Access Bank, United Bank for Africa and Zenith Bank.
Classified as the biggest project in the entire fertiliser industry in the world, Dangote said, “This phase 1 of the project, which is estimated to cost $2.5 billion, is to manufacture 3mmtpa of urea per annum. This capacity will later be expanded to produce multi grades of fertilisers to meet soil, crop and climate specific requirements for the African continent.”
According to Dangote, the fertiliser plant will make Nigeria the biggest urea exporting country in sub-Saharan Africa and biggest producer of polypropylene and polyethylene.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Emefiele said Nigeria had the potential to export at least 3.5 million metric tonnes of urea to different parts of the world.
